It's interesting that the fact that people like driving is being almost completely ignored by proponents of self drive cars, with dissenting views restricted to statements in the comments like "If I'm going to buy a state of the art electric sports car I'm damned if I'm going to let a computer drive." or "People are born to drive." (from my local paper last week).
I'm not sure a passion for cars is going to save the person driven vehicle though. If you currently pay $30k per year for a family of four's local transport needs and are offered the equivalent for $20k - with the added advantage that the minors don't need to be picked up or dropped off - it'll be tempting. Add the inevitable rise in insurance costs for those who choose to hold out and you may end up not really having a choice. It'd be good to see a bit more recognition of exactly why people like the current situation, and why they see the advantages: convenience, privacy, enjoyment of driving outweigh the disadvantages: deaths, noise, pollution, large areas of cities devoted to car infrastructure (picture Parramatta Road minus the car yards, panel beaters and accessory superstores). I think one problem now is we are seeing a failure of imagination. The current human driven cars don't have to be replaced by the same thing driven by computers - either privately owned or shared. One possibility is that people could own the private space - the cabin - and the drive mechanism could detach. Maybe someone could devise a system where individual pods could be docked together so you could share the travel space with family, colleagues or friends. Personal cargo would travel in separate transport. Splitting the cabin from the mechanism would also mean journeys could seamlessly select the best method of travel, your pod could ditch the local individual wheels and load you onto a train for longer journeys. If you really want to the experience of driving yourself you may end up having to ride a bicycle. Although it's unclear what sharing the road with vehicles which are absolutely pedantic about traffic laws, and which will record everything, will be like. Paul Bolger On Jun 6 2016, at 8:22 pm, Ivan Trundle <[email protected]> wrote: > I detect a distinct lack of passion for cars in people who write these stories. Why don’t the people who write these stories talk to people who drive cars and ask them WHY they are happy to use a car for less than an hour a day, or why a utilisation rate of 4 per cent or less hasn’t changed in a century? > > There’s undoubtedly a market for ride-sharing, otherwise buses and taxis wouldn’t have been invented. What makes a difference here is that people have a multitude of reasons why they own cars in the first place. And it seems as though the stories that get traction (pardon the pun) originate from places where car ownership is minimal (large cities), hence the thinking that if it works in a city, it works everywhere. > > > On 6 Jun 2016, at 3:36 PM, David Boxall <[email protected]> wrote: > > <http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/may-not-drive-vehicle-10-years- time-59005> >> ... while there might still be some human drivers in the system for commercial functions like trash, mail, ambulances, and package deliveries, you could probably ban all private vehicles ... > > _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] <http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link> _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
